Case projects

All three case projects were chosen based on their size, relevance to the thesis and how recently the project has been completed. All the projects were completed at the time of interviews. As earlier mentioned the project can be categorized into two different category: Standard Equipment and Material Handling Projects. The case project A represent Standard Equipment and the case projects B and C Material Handling Projects.

The case project A was the smallest of the case projects by monetary value and project duration was the shortest one. The case project A represent typical standard

equipment project where engineering and designing of equipment based on

standardized structures and modules. Therefore less engineering and designing are needed than in turnkey projects where equipment are more complex and therefore, require a lot more engineering and designing. Even though this projects as categorized as a standard equipment, it is still engineering-to-order product where customer order and specification penetrate to design phase. Material requirements in standard equipment projects are more predictable since the equipment are based on standardized modules and structures that are modified based on the customer’s requirements. This helps to plan and coordinate the materials flows in the supply chain since material requirements are mostly known in the early phase of the project. Overall, the project was delivered on time, but there were some issue with the customer’s

approval of general drawings. This caused some difficulties in the fabrication phase since the drawings were sent to the subcontractor in many batches and fabrication was on hold in many occasions.

The case project B was the longest by duration and the total monetary value of the project was the greatest. This project can be categorized as Material Handling Project based on the project size and complexity. The project started in June 2019 and was completed in November 2020. The duration of the project was long compares to other projects the case company have been delivered in recent years. The case project B was divided into two sub-projects based on the project deliverables. First sub-project was about the delivery of new belt conveyors to the customers including the installation of the belt conveyors. Another sub-project was about the modifying existing equipment and delivering additional steel structures needed for a new equipment layout. Both sub-projects were delivered simultaneously and the project teams was the same for both sub-projects. Therefore, these sub-projects can be bundled into one case project B.

The case project B was complex project due to the fact the end customer was building completely new coal ship loading facilities with the mix of existing equipment procured from elsewhere and new equipment delivered the case company. The modification of existing belt conveyors and fully upgraded multilevel transfer buildings required a lot of engineering and re-designing and therefore the materials requirements were clear only quite late in the project. Furthermore, the installation always brings another aspect to the material flow management since the installation phase is very vulnerable to any material delays or defects. The schedule of the case project B was revised quite a few time, mainly due to the customer and delays in the constructions of the foundation and other civil work. Furthermore, especially with one particular subcontractor there were issues with quality, missing materials, wrong item labelling and the assembly level of the equipment. These issues caused a lot of extra hours at the site and obviously caused a lot of extra costs to the case company. Overall, the case project B was very complex project due to the size of the project and amount of modifications and upgrades needed to fit the existing equipment to the new lay out.

The case project C is the most recent of the case projects and it started in July 2020 and was completed in June 2021. This project was a ship loader project to Taiwan and the project included engineering, automation and electrification of a ship loader and fabrication of key sub-assemblies of the ship loader. Some steel structures of the ship loader were fabricated locally in Taiwan due to the economy reasons. Since the case company hasn’t delivered ship loader in more than ten years, the lot of know how was lost and project team had a steep learn curve to overcome. The engineering and

designing phase was much longer than expected and some of the material requirement were known only very late in the project. The case company struggled also to find suitable suppliers for the components since there weren’t well established supplier network for this type of equipment. Therefore the lead times of some key components were hard to estimate and they arrived very late in the project. The packing of the materials for containers was also time consuming since there were 20 containers and four different suppliers who packed the materials into containers. The material packing at the end of the project is the step normally overlooked and underestimated how much time it requires. Overall, the project was delivered on time, but there were some issues with delayed materials and prolonged designing of the equipment. The table 6 below summarized the key figures of the case projects

Table 6. Case projects.

Case Project A

Project Duration 7 months Project Scope

Engineering and fabrication of ten belt conveyors and upgrade of one existing belt conveyor.

Project Value 928 740 € Purchased materials 782 857 € Number of workshops 2

Project takeover February 2021 Case Project B

Project Duration 18 months

Project Scope

Engineering and fabrication of 6 new belt conveyors, 9 conveyor modifications, 3 fully upgraded multi-level transfer building, transfer chutes and divider gate systems along with other accessories.

Project Value 4 365 862 € Purchased materials 1 504 592 € Number of workshops 7

Project takeover November 2020 Case Project C

Project Duration 12 months

Project Scope

Engineering, automation and electrification of a ship loader and fabrication of a ship loader (except pylon, service platforms, portal and winch cover).

Project Value 3 081 640 € Purchased materials 1 483 504 € Number of workshops 10

Project takeover June 2021

All the case projects had different end customers and the final locations. The case project B was very challenging project to manage due to the vast project scope, a lot of uncertainty at the beginning of project and site activities involved (installation of 5 belt conveyors). Other two projects were more defined at the beginning, but especially with the case project C there were difficulties to identify the amount of engineering work needed to design the ship loader. This was mainly because the case company hasn’t delivered ship loaders in ten years and a lot of the know-how was lost since the last ship loader project.